American Pageant Chapter 27 Vocab

Big Sister Policy

Big Sister Policy

A foreign policy of Secretary James G. Blaine aimed at rallying Latin American nations behind American leadership and opening Latin American markets to Yankee traders. The policy bore fruit in 1889, when Blaine presided over the First International Conference of American States.

Great Rapprochement

After decades of occasionally "twisting the lion's tail," American diplomats began to cultivate close, cordial relations with Great Britain at the end of the nineteenth century-- a relationship that would intensify during World War I.

McKinley Tariff

Shepherded through Congress by President William McKinley, this tariff raised duties on Hawaiian sugar and set of renewed efforts to secure annexation of Hawaii to the United States.

insurrectos

Cuban insurgents who sought freedom from colonial Spanish rule. Their destructive tactics threatened American economic interests in Cuban plantations and railroads.

Maine

American battleship dispatched to keep a "friendly" watch over Cuba in early 1898. It mysteriously blew up in Havana harbor on February 15, 1898, with a loss of 260 sailors. Later evidence confirmed that the explosion was accidental, resulting from combustion in one of the ship's internal coal bunkers. But many Americans, eager for war, insisted that it was the fault of a Spanish submarine mine.

Teller Amendment

A proviso to President William McKinley's war plans that proclaimed to the world that when the United States had overthrown Spanish misrule, it would give Cuba its freedom. The amendment testified to the ostensibly "anti-imperialist" designs of the initial war plans.

Rough Riders

Organized by Theodore Roosevelt, this was a colorful, motley regiment of Cuban war volunteers consisting of mostly western cowboys, ex-convicts, and effete Ivy Leaguers. Roosevelt emphasized his experience with the regiment in subsequent campaigns for Governor of New York and Vice-President under William McKinley.

Anti-Imperialist League

A diverse group former in order to protest American colonial oversight in the Philippines. It included university presidents, industrialists, and labor leaders. Strongest in the Northeast, this group was the largest lobbying organization on a US foreign-policy issue until the end of the nineteenth century. It declined after the US signed the Treaty of Paris (which approved the annexation of the Philippines), and especially after hostilities broke out between Filipino nationalists and American forces.

Foraker Act

Sponsored by Joseph B. Foraker, a Republican from Ohio, this accorded Puerto Ricans a limited degree of popular government. It was the first comprehensive congressional effort to provide for governance of territories acquired after the Spanish American War, and served as a model for a similar act adopted for the Philippines in 1902.

Insular Cases

Beginning in 1901, a badly divided Supreme Court decreed in these cases that the Constitution did not follow the flag. In other words, Puerto Ricans and Filipinos would not necessarily enjoy all American rights.

Platt Amendment

Following its military occupation, the US successfully pressured the Cuban government to write this amendment into its constitution. It limited Cuba's treaty making abilities, controlled its debt, and stipulated that the US could intervene militarily to restore order when it saw fit.

Open Door note

A set of diplomatic letters in which Secretary of State John Hay urged the great powers to respect Chinese rights and free and open competition within their spheres of influence. The notes established the "Open Door Policy," which sought to ensure access to the Chinese market for the US, despite the fact that the US did not have a formal sphere of influence in China.

Boxer Rebellion

An uprising in China directed against foreign influence. It was suppressed by an international force of some eighteen thousand soldiers. This rebellion paved the way for the revolution of 1911, which led to the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.

Hay-Pauncefote Treaty

A treaty signed between the US and Great Britain, giving Americans a free hand to build a canal in Central America. The treaty nullified the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty of 1850, which prohibited the British or US from acquiring territory in Central America.

Roosevelt Corollary

A brazen policy of "preventative intervention" advocated by Theodore Roosevelt in his Annual Message to Congress in 1904. Adding ballast to the Monroe Doctrine, his corollary stipulated that the US would retain a right to intervene in the domestic affairs of Latin American nations in order to restore military and financial order.

Root-Takahira agreement

Signed on November 30, 1908, the US and Japan agreed to respect each other's territorial possessions in the Pacific and to uphold the Open Door in China. The Agreement was credited with easing tensions between the two nations, but it also resulted in a weakened American influence over further Japanese hegemony in China.

Josiah Strong

Protestant clergyman and author of "Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis." He touted the superiority of Anglo-Saxon civilization and helped summon Americans to spread their religion abroad.

Alfred Thayer Mahan

American naval officer and author whose book of 1890, "The Influence of Sea Power upon History, 1660-1783," impressed a generation of imperialists around the world with its argument that control of the sea was the key to world dominance.

James G. Blaine

American statesman who served in the House thirteen years, followed by a little over four years in the Senate. He served as Speaker of the House from 1869 to 1875. As Secretary of State under James A. Garfield and Chester A. Arthur, he advocated a "Big Sister" policy of US domination in Latin America.

Richard Olney

The pugnacious successor to James G. Blaine as Secretary of State, serving from 1895 to 1897, he stirred up conflict with Great Britain during the Venezuelan Crisis of 1895-1896. He also insisted on the protection of American lives and property and on reparations for losses incurred during violent disturbances in Cuba, China, and Turkey.

Liliuokalani

The last reigning queen of Hawaii, whose defense of native Hawaiian self-rule led to a revolt by white settlers and to her dethronement.

"Butcher" Weyler

A Spanish general who arrived in Cuba in 1896 to put down the insurrection. He became notorious for herding many civilians into barbed-wire reconcentration camps.

Dupuy de Lome

The Spanish minister to the US who found himself at the center of a scandal when his private letter maligning President McKinley was made public in 1898.

George Dewey

Commander of the American Asiatic Squadron who boldly captured Manila Bay and the Philippines at the launch of the Spanish American War. His actions ultimately led to fierce debates about the propriety of American imperialism.

Emilio Aguinaldo

Well-educated Filipino leader who first sought against Spain and later led the Philippine insurgency against US colonial rule.

William H. Taft

The corpulent civil governor of the Philippines under William McKinley. He went on to become twenty-seventh president of the United States in 1909.

John Hay

Names US ambassador to England in 1897, when William McKinley became President. He later served as McKinley's Secretary of State. He was author of the Open Door Notes, which called for free economic competition in China.

Theodore Roosevelt

Rough Rider who was a cowboy-hero of the Cuban campaign who rode his popularity into the governorship of New York state and then into the Vice President's office. He became president when McKinley was assassinated in 1901. He won reelection as a Republican in 1904, and then lost to Democrat Woodrow Wilson in 1912, when he tried for another term as the Progressive Party candidate.